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Reportages

ANGA Cable Trade Fair 2007 May 22 - 24, Cologne, Germany

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It has been another year of growth - as regards exhibition area and number of visitors

ANGA Cable has become the most important trade exhibition of TV technology and related areas in Europe. It gives an opportunity to meet with experts from all over the world (from more than 60 countries). As usual, there were many exhibitors, but the number of visitors was rather similar to last year's edition.

When will IPTV be in full bloom? This year shows that IP technology becomes useful medium for television (Apple TV, IPTV receivers in game consoles, growing popularity of network broadcasting), and it is prospective direction of development of television. A serious obstacle that hinders development of this transmission channel is low rate to the end user; an average transmission speed of Internet link is listed below:

5 Mbps in Hong Kong

2 Mbps in USA

1 Mbps in Western Europe

0.5 Mbps in Poland

To ensure smooth and detailed TV picture, the link has to have at least 4 - 5 Mbps throughput for SDTV (current standards), and 15 Mbps for HDTV broadcasts compressed with MPEG4. So, after raising transmission speeds the world will face REVOLUTION in television. But what for? Everything seems to work well, what will we get out of the change?Currently, cable TV networks are limited to 60 - 70 channels. When the networks change into IPTV, the capacity will be measured in hundreds or even thousands of programs. It will mean new possibilities for global, as well as niche broadcasters, such as those producing educational programs for small groups of people (e.g. educational or hobby televisions). This is a very attractive area for investors, so many will want to get their share of the cake.The leading companies like Siemens, Ikusi, or Appear presented operational IPTV systems. Many other exhibitors also showed IPTV equipment.

IPTV headend from IKUSI. One such module allows transmission of up to 8 streams. Price: ca 1600 EUR.

Other industrial tycoon - Motorola - showed TV distribution system based on fiber-optic cables led to the end user (subscriber). If last mile limitations disappear, what will halt the course of events?

What's new in SAT TV? There were shown great numbers of digital sat receivers, both standard and HDTV models, and iDTV televisions (Integrated Digital TV set), i.e. with built-in digital TV tuner, a lot of converters, cables, connectors, and, for example:

New RF meters Prodig 5II and Prodig 5II plus (with CI connector) from Promax. The meters are designed for measuring DVB-T and DVB-S signals (QPSK, 8PSK).

Flat satellite antenna selfsat for reception of programs with both polarizations roused interest of many visitors. For us, it was a little bit too expensive (179 EUR), and we had doubts whether the device was really capable of receiving neighboring satellites without mutual interferences, or the advertised 33 dBi gain was a real value.

Flat satellite antennas were presented by majority of manufacturers, but their constructions were different. Inside the device above there is paraboloidal dish, the radiator of the converter is put in the focus of it.

There was also seen development in constructions of multiswitches. Unicable system gained popularity, as well as several producers offered computer-managed devices. Satmatrix multiswitches equipped with VSS-H module can be managed locally (with a computer), or remotely (GSM). These management tools enable the operator to control the network any moment, and e.g. switch off the subscriber who does not pay for the service.

Terra Electronics showed complete system of two-converter multiswitches of MSRMSV-9XX series. It is a counterpart of the well known one-converter MSR/MSVXX family.

Alcad presented improved TP-561 panels. They allow the user to forget about the problem of choosing BG or DK standard.

A coincidence? An interesting exposition was prepared by Polish company Telkom-Telmor. Polish equipment gains European market. Is it a coincidence the programmable multiband amplifiers of Telmor and Triax? The answer to the question was: "Europe is small". So, it seems to be a norm for manufacturers to release products with different brands.

Two amplifiers but the same genes. Twins are on the top in Poland now :)

A nice surprise for lovers of TV history was given by Fraccaro company - electromechanical TV set from 1933, using Nipkow disk.

Polish accents. Many Poles visited the fair, usually professional colleagues. Apart from annual exhibitors - Telmor and Vector, there turned up Matt company - producer of RF outlets and filters.

Anga Cable is certainly a working meeting, but some exhibitors know that one cannot live by electronics alone ...